Question 001
- Jared Aragon
- Jun 26
- 9 min read
Video Resources:
"If I don't believe in God, but I do good in this world and I don't do evil, will I go to hell?"
Background Lofi:
No Copyright Lo-Fi Music 2022 🎵 LoFi hiphop mix & Chillhop 🎵 Chill lofi mix to study/relax to 14 – by Stomp’s Playlist
Video Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DfHaOYeaqk&list=RD-DfHaOYeaqk&start_radio=1&t=2482s
Highlighted Notes:
It’s not about what you do, but about what’s in your heart.
Sin is anything that leads to the harm of yourself or others, so it is the harm of ourselves or others that separates us from God.
Righteousness is a state of being in which God places you.
The kingdom of heaven is a closeness and proximity to God.
Hell can be seen as the condition of our soul that is not in proximity to God.
The lonely desolate place our souls experience is the definition of hell, and the only escape is a closeness to God.
Love cannot exist without choice.
Choosing to have a relationship with God does not solve all of your problems. He is, however, the solution to our soul’s condition.
It is the choice here and now that leads to the eternal version of the hell we experience outside of God.
It is God’s ultimate desire and goal for every person to be reunited with him in a personal unique relationship.
Verses Referenced:
• “It’s not about what you do it’s about what’s in your heart.”
o Proverbs 4:23
o 1 Samuel 16:7
o Luke 6:45
o Matthew 5:27-28
o Mark 7:20-23
• “The sum of the law of Moses and the law of the prophets could be summarized into two commandments, which is love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
o Mark 12:28-34
o Matthew 22:34-40
o Luke 10:25-28
o Romans 13:8-10
o Galatians 5:14
• “It is your sin that has separated you from God.”
o Isaiah 59:2
• “Righteousness is a state of being in which God places you.”
o Job 29:14
o Isaiah 59:17
o Isaiah 61:10
o Matthew 6:33
o Luke 18:9-14
o Romans 1:17,
o 3:21-26, 4:3-5, 9:30-31
o 2 Corinthians 5:21
o Ephesians 6:14
• “The kingdom of heaven is a closeness and proximity to God.”
o Mark 1:14-15
o John 17:3
• "It is better for one member of your body to enter géenna of fire than the whole body.”
o Matthew 18:8-9
o Mark 9:43-48
• Descriptions of the eternal heaven
o Revelations 7:17, 21:4
o Matthew 6:19-21
• Descriptions of the eternal hell
o Matthew 14:32
• “Those who have heard of me and have not believed in God’s one and only son.”
o John 3:18
• “If God is light, then being outside the light is hell, in any form.”
o John 3:19
o 1 John 1:5
• “God says you choose what you want to choose, but know that I chose you.”
o Romans 5:8
o Revelations 3:20
o James 4:8
• “Jesus came down and sacrificed himself to create a pathway for us to have a relationship with God.”
o Matthew 27:51
o Mark 15:38
o Luke 23:45
o Ephesians 2:18
o Romans 5:1-2
o John 14:6
o Matthew 7:13-14
• “The pockets of heaven are limited to the things we experience here on earth.”
o John 16:33
o Ecclesiastes 2:23
o Job 14:1
• “We don’t experience heaven in it’s fullness, there’s an eternal versions of that.”
o 1 Corinthians 13:12
o Ephesians 1:13-14
• “God would not force us to be with him in heaven if we choose actively if we did not want to be with him on earth.”
o John 3:19
If I don’t believe in God, but I do good in this world and I don’t do evil, will I go to hell?
- If I don’t believe in God
o First off, if there is no God, evil is subjective, meaning evil is just what everyone else says it is. We’ve reached a point in society where relatively all people, I believe, would agree on certain aspects of evil.
o I think evil, from a morality standpoint, can boil down to what harms another person, or what can harm oneself. Anything we think about evil stems from these two ideas.
o Well, what does the Bible say about evil? The same exact thing. Now imagine this, a doctor comes to you and says, don’t eat this food, it’s not good for you, but you never get sick when eating it, so you don’t believe him and you continue eating the food. Then years down the road, you get sick, and you go to another doctor that says you got sick because you ate too much of that food. You believe the first doctor then, because you were harming yourself unknowingly. If the same can be said with God, and what he would ask us to do, would we do those things trusting that ultimate good would come from it? This is a bad question to ask though, because there is really only one thing that is asked of us. Could you imagine that? No do’s or do not’s. Just one aspect of life by which we live through, that would completely obliterate in us the desire to do evil. Two commandments that are given: love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. You wouldn’t do much evil when you are focused on loving your neighbor as yourself. To “not” do evil, is simply to be committed to doing good.
o To be worried or wondering about hell, but not believe in God I think is an interesting dynamic that a lot of people can relate to. I’ve seen people argue this point to say “well, if you don’t believe in God, then you shouldn’t be afraid of a hell.” This argument adds nothing to the conversation. If we think rationally, we have reasonable doubt on both ends. On one end, we think, what if I served God my entire life, then everything is blank at the end. Then in another strand of thought, if my entire life I did good, but did not serve a God, as I did not believe, then would I go to hell if it does indeed exist.
I think if we fear a hell, there is a small part of us that would agree that a creator is likely, even if just a small part. A small voice inside our heads question whether or not what we are doing is right. We are consistently faced in life with the reality that time cannot reverse. It passes us by, and we are forced to make choices that will impact us. Since this seems to be a pretty prevalent choice, we stress about it naturally.
- Let’s talk about hell
o Sheol (Hebrew old testament) = realm of the dead/grave in the Old Testament; not always a place of punishment.
o Hades = equivalent of Sheol in many New Testament contexts.
o Gehenna = place of final judgment/punishment in Jesus' teachings.
Hell is the place of the future punishment called "Gehenna" or "Gehenna of fire". This was originally the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, where the filth and dead animals of the city were cast out and burned; a fit symbol of the wicked and their future destruction.
• This is the place in Jesus’s teachings where he mentions it is better for one member of your body to enter Gehenna of fire than the whole body. If one part of your person causes you to exit the presence of God, sever it, so that it does not eventually drag your entire person in.
• This is also where He says not to fear who may kill the body, but not the soul, but fear instead He who is able to destroy both body and soul in Gehenna of fire.
o You can imagine the visual picture Jesus paints, that the soul would be rendered dead, as the animals who lay outside the city, and are burned up.
o Lake of Fire = final destination after judgment in Revelation.
o The Pit / Abyss = prison-like realm for demonic beings and sometimes the dead.
o Tartarus = prison for fallen angels (appears once in the New Testament).
o Outer darkness, eternal fire, furnace of fire, second death = related judgment imagery.
- We know that the death of the soul, the part of us that is eternal, is a synonym for being separated from God.
o Does not death of the soul feel like hell?
o In your own life, can you say you have experienced a version of hell that your soul has been through?
o I think in the same way that heaven has come, and is here now, as Jesus proclaims, that hell has been here far longer. Hell as a state of being. A state of location for our soul. Our soul is bound to the body in this life, which makes sense. We can be in hell, but still have a good enjoyable part of our day. Momentary happiness stemming from pleasantries of life. But the suffering.... the insufferable loneliness we feel in the middle of the night. The anguish of our very souls as we are laid up thinking about things outside of the momentary pleasantries. I don’t think I need to describe in detail what sort of things bring on this anguish of our souls. This pocket of experienced hell we all know. There is an eternal version of that. An eternal version, of the separation from God that we feel here on earth. It is this separation, that Jesus also describes as the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Where better a place to describe an absence of God, who is light, and in whom can be no darkness.
Back to the base of the question: “If I don’t believe in God, but I do good in this world and I don’t do evil, will I go to hell?” And the other question I think we can also address in the same vein: “What happens to someone who hasn’t heard about Christ? Do they go to hell?”
The judgement at the end is often mentioned in the Bible. Let’s see what this Jesus fellow has to say about it.
I will present to you, Matthew 7:21-23:
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
I recommend anyone to go and read Matthew chapters 5 through 7. In it lay many contemplations about what people do, and what is in their hearts. This verse we just read is the tip of that spear. All of these verses flow together. Through all the words of Jesus we can build an accurate representation of not only who God is, but what He wants. It is obvious as we search the four testament accounts of Jesus’s life that it is God’s ultimate goal to bring each and every person into a personal relationship with him starting in this life.
However. God does not step on the toes of free will.
In order for real love to exist, free will must exist. The purest form of love is love that is chosen.
This statement that Jesus makes also shows the intention of God. It is His desire for us to know Him. Some could argue that it is quite literally the main point. For without it, we would be cast out from His presence anyway. Many people now believe that it is God’s desire that we do good works in this life and serve others, but we tend to forget the first part of God’s desire, which is to love Him. To choose God in this life.
It is this choice, that God respects when he makes the ultimate determination for the location of our very souls during and ultimately after this life on earth.
God is essentially saying, that it is His desire to know us, and for us to seek and know Him. All of our good works flow from this naturally. As we do, we enter in to the kingdom of heaven, which is why Jesus says it is here and now. When we actively choose to avoid God, and be separate from Him, He ultimately respects our decision. God would not force us to be with Him in heaven if we chose actively that we did not want to be with Him on earth. It is this concept that brings us to the idea that God would then continue separation from us after life here. This position of our soul holds the description of the outer darkness, the lonely desolate place outside of God’s presence, where there will be weeping, and anguish within ourselves.
To answer the question, God respects our decision to be apart from Him, and that will undoubtedly lead to the condition of our souls, described as hell.
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